Silver Lake has costly storm sewer project

Years ago, the village placed a storm sewer that ran from North Riverside Drive to the Fox River. At the time, the storm sewer ran along a lot live.

According to Silver Lake building inspector Royce Kennedy, the storm sewer was placed in 1940 and the home built in 1974. Somehow, the fact that the storm water sewer was there was missed. And now the village needs to make it right.

At the June 19 regular board meeting, the board approved a letter or understanding and recommendation with Cripsell-Snyder regarding a storm sewer relay project on N. Riverside drive Engineering costs are usually a small percentage of a project cost, but the situation on N. Riverside has created a unique situation and engineering costs are almost equal.

The current storm sewer must be abandoned and filled in properly so no sinkhole is created. The new sewer will be about 100 feet away.

Costs for engineering for the execution of the project are estimated at $5,000 for construction services, $3,650 for inspection services. Crispell-Snyder procured three bids for construction work. Odling Construction, Inc of Delavan was $28,320; Augie’s Excavating, Inc. in Burlington was $29,038.07 and Wanasek was the lowest bid at $27,719.

Jeff Seitz, village engineer from Crispell-Snyder, commented that all bids were in the ballpark and close and he recommended awarding the job to Wanasek.

The village already (paid or has a bill for) $12,000 for consulting services for project design. That amount covered measurements of the existing storm sewer and the proposed sewer; calculation of quantities and cost estimate preparation; preparation of project specs and construction plans; preparing easement documents; project bidding and assisting with obtaining Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) permits.

The current $8,000 estimate for engineering services coupled with the $12,000 already paid creates an anomaly. Engineering costs for projects are usually a fraction of the total project cost, but the engineering costs for this project are nearly equal to the construction costs.

Silver Lake trustee Soti Wilber asked Seitz if there was someone an amount could be shaved off the total amount. “We’ve already paid quite a bit for this.”

Seitz explained that every step required to complete the project from his end was necessary and that $500 for the WDNR was included.

“The engineering costs are usually a small percentage of the total cost,” he said. “This project is different and the engineering costs for future project will not look like this.”